


And Many Happy Returns

by Lamashtar



Series: Darkdevil [1]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Spider-Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Future, Darkdevil - Freeform, Dead Devil, Gen, Implied Matt Murdock, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Reincarnation, Resurrection, Spidergirl Universe, Technically Dead Matt Murdock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-12-20 01:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lamashtar/pseuds/Lamashtar
Summary: Matt Murdock died and returned with a new body, as a completely different person.  Because that is Foggy Nelson's life.





	And Many Happy Returns

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be compatible with Netflix Daredevil, though it's set in a hypothetical future.

Every time the new intern spoke, Foggy heard Matt Murdock's voice.

Foggy knew it was wrong.  His former partner had been a violent vigilante. Nobody had been surprised when he was killed by gangsters years ago.  

His best friend was long dead.

(The funeral had been lovely, and well-attended. Foggy's family came. Several of the hero community. A couple papparazzi, covering the funeral and the celebrities who attended. Some people who Matt had helped over the years. A crowd of locals who'd known him. A few hard faced types who kept to themselves, watching from a distance. A priest. A nun.)

There was no reason for the way his heart stopped when this young man entered his office. Just another law student, here for undergrad experience. A routine greeting for a new employee.

No reason.

He's sure it isn't grief.  Grief is when your friend's body is mysteriously delivered to the emergency room, stripped of that ridiculous devil costume, wrapped in a sheet and riddled with gunshot wounds.  Grief is breaking down when you have to identify the body, pain hollowing out your chest, no matter how much you _knew_ this day would come eventually.  Grief is when you can't stop listening to the silence in your best friend's office down the hall because the stupid, _stupid_ hopeful piece of his heart kept waiting for Matt to come back--because Matt was a _superhero_ and miracles were just Tuesday.  Grief is trying to move on with _living_ and finding yourself unconsciously searching crowds for the tap-tap-tapping cane of a blind man.

Foggy had had time to come to terms with the inevitability of Matt's death.  He is not still grieving. He had _accepted_ it.

(He let people help him, the way Matt never did. Nelson & Murdock became Nelson & Associates, one of the highest profile firms in the city. Franklin Nelson was the successful, bigtime lawyer he'd always dreamed of being.)

Sitting in his chair, listening to the new intern introduce himself, Foggy felt like he'd been turned to stone.

He didn't know where the feeling is coming from. Was it the small gestures, a habit of moving, the boneless grace of the way the man entered, his noiseless footfalls coming to rest in front of Foggy's desk? But the recognition is as certain as looking into a face of someone he loved.

The young man standing in Franklin Nelson's office is not Matthew Murdock. Foggy knows that.

He didn't look like Matt.  Matt was annoyingly beautiful. This man was plain, almost nondescript.  The word _unobjectionable_ came to Foggy's mind, unbidden.  It's a bit unfair.  Foggy is sure that plenty of women might find the young man good looking enough. It was just that Matt always managed to have a certain style despite his blindness, maybe because he had to take professional advice on what to wear.  This intern was a painfully dull dresser.

And he could _see_.  Foggy has already been through the embarrassment of getting caught staring at blind people, trying to spot Matt's special brand of smartass deflecting.

You'd think the blind wouldn't notice being stared at. It had been the awkward silences, he was told. Then someone would always tell them, sooner or later. About Matt. Even now, after all this time, gossip still followed Foggy.

There was nothing out of the ordinary here.  This guy wasn't even handicapped. 

(Foggy had made a point after Matt's death of maintaining a handicapped-friendly office.  It was one of the ways Foggy remembered Matt, how his old partner would trace the braille signs with a smile, before making his terrible blind jokes.)

Nor was the choice unusual.  This particular intern was at the top of his class.  Any law firm would have hired him.  In his recommendation letters, his professors said he had unusually good understanding how the real world affected the law. And he was good at helping fellow students understand the material as well.

(Interns were inherently stupid, Foggy knew.  An intern whisperer would be a bonus.)

"Mr. Nelson?"

 _His voice._ It was precise and purring, a wave of measured timbre making itself comfortable in your ear.  It was Matt's Professional Lawyer voice, tempered by squeaky uncertainty (also Matt's voice, from law school, when timidity still hid the rest of him).  

Foggy realized he'd been caught staring. Again.  He wasn't sure how many minutes. At a perfectly ordinary intern.  He wondered if senility was far off.  

He tried to recover. "Sorry, I think I forgot your name..?"

The intern cocked his head slightly and a smile of shy delight spread across his face.  

( _Matt's smile, it was the smile Matt gave him the first day they met_ )

"No problem, sir, it's Reilly Tyne."

"So, did Merry give you the tour yet?" 

Hopefully, the intern (Reilly, he really had to remember that) hadn't noticed how out of it the new boss was.

“I got it on the way here, Mr. Nelson.”

“Oh. Oh, right! Merry is pretty efficient that way..” Meredith was one of his associates. She had more to do with running the office than he did, these days.

The young man didn't reply, apparently content to stand quietly in Foggy's office, gently smiling at him.

“Well, make sure you check out our neighbors! There's a nice diner everybody likes to eat at..” Foggy was running out of things to say. Maybe he'd take his new intern to lunch. All just part of Foggy's effort to be Best Boss Ever. 

“Mr. Nelson? I--I just wanted to say how much I admire you—your work, sir. Your use of the Tower vs. Stahl decision was brilliant.”

 _Matt_ had never looked at him with that kind of wide-eyed admiration. (Of course, Matt never looked into his eyes, either, for obvious reasons..) Foggy's brain can't decide if he's pleased or disappointed. “It was right there. Somebody would've noticed it eventually," Foggy shrugged. "I was just lucky it worked for my client.” 

“Sir, don't discredit yourself.” Tyne leaned over Foggy's desk with an intense gaze. “I've studied every one of your cases from Nelson and Murdock. I have them _memorized!_ Your career has been a juggernaut for justice--the triumph of law over forces of chaos that have tried to rip this city apart, time and time again! You've been a crusader for victim's rights of every life form known! You are a _hero_ \--to, uh, lots of people.” Tyne cut himself off abruptly, seemingly dismayed at losing his cool in front of his new boss. 

Now Tyne was trying to shrink into himself.

"Um. Okay." Foggy blinked. For a minute, Tyne's fiery speech had made Foggy fear for the top of his desk. He was a passionate young man. "You _memorized_ my old casework? Really?"

The intern's face reddened. He clasped his hands together and fidgeted.

Hmf. Even Foggy didn't like rereading his old case files.

Of course. That had to be it.  Tyne was just a fan of the old Nelson & Murdock, nothing supernatural about it. Foggy had to admit, the flattery was nice—his use of the Tower vs. Stahl legal decision _had_ been groundbreaking, if he did say so himself. Nothing wrong with having a fan, was there?

“My genius does go sadly unrecognized." Foggy confided sorrowfully, “I think it's because all the other lawyers are jealous of my good looks and svelte figure.”

That got the shy smile back Foggy had been angling for. “Welcome to the firm," he said, extending his hand. 

"Thank you, sir." 

Tyne shook Foggy's hand and left. Duty accomplished. Merry would be pleased. Office gossip about the impending loss of his faculties would go lacking.

Just a nice kid, really.  Probably recited Matt's arguments for practice and watched old footage to analyze his delivery.  

Foggy picked up one of his paperweights. He'd collected whimsical dinosaur figures for years, keeping a collection of them populating his desk. He turned a triceratops over in his hands, absently. 

An intern who looked at Foggy like he'd been waiting for him all his life.

He found himself contemplating the dinosaur. It looked back at him.

It _was_ Tuesday.

Foggy glanced out his wide office window. It gave him a beautiful view of the city. Lazily spread out before him, sunlight dappling through it's old buildings and shiny skyscrapers alike, New York looked almost magical today.

For the rest of the morning, Foggy ignored the work piled on his desk. His heart full of a hope too fragile to put into words, he watched the rooftops.

**Author's Note:**

> Reilly Tyne is not an original character. He is from Marvel's official alternate future in the Spidergirl title and really does have Matt Murdock's soul. His interior life has always been a bit murky about how the original soul and Matt's soul interacted; the possibilities can be interpreted several different ways. After Netflix Defenders, I wanted a back-from-the-dead Matt fic and decided to interpret Reilly's story from that standpoint.
> 
> Some dialogue was taken from the Darkdevil limited series. 
> 
> Any further stories in this timeline will be set firmly in the comic book setting, explained as it goes.


End file.
